Sunday, May 22, 2011

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On Second Thought Top
Here’s why I’m glad I was wrong about RSS being dead. The latest evidence of that comes from Jesse Stay who reported a week or so ago that both Facebook and Twitter had discontinued RSS streams or something like that. I really didn’t bother to read up on the details since it’s now years since I gave up on the stuff. These days I obsess about Lady GaGa and whether Brian Wilson’s version of Good Vibrations is better than the one with Mike Love and when Ustream is finally going to stream live to the iPad and why some apps only stream audio over AirPlay and turn the AirPlay icon blue instead of white. And then Jesse Stay apparently convinced his friends at Facebook to reconsider and reinstate RSS. In so doing, Facebook instantly removed any further conversation about RSS. This includes no further references to the famous Monty Python dead parrot sketch, the Franco is still dead SNL running gag, various tech dead memes (Office, Notes, Windows, links, FriendFeed, Sun, FlipCam, PointCast, the ASP model, laptops, podcasting, TV, email), and all synonyms, most importantly Toast. Also, cough, dead are the arguments about whether things are dead: how can something that isn’t or wasn’t ever alive be dead, how can ______ be dead when there are 35 billion copies out there, you’re a moron, and the time honored [Blocked]. That last one as in, I haven’t been following that since Dave blocked me a few years ago. You see, Dave not only invented RSS — he invented all the arguments about it. Shutting down comments — Dave. Opening up comments and then blocking those who disagree — Dave. But luckily Dave also created a fantastic way of identifying viral social media startups. It’s a variation on the rationale for following someone you disagree vehemently with as a good indicator of how to do the opposite. With Dave, that signal is the classification of a company as proprietary. I’d argue with the impossibility of finding a company that by definition wasn’t proprietary; if not, then what is it, an idea, a random assemblage, a line for the bathroom at a sporting event? But arguing that is no longer possible given the Death of Dead memes and their corollary arguments. Nonetheless, if Dave argues that Twitter or Facebook or Google or Apple or (used to be) Microsoft is locking us in the trunk of corporate control and forcing us to rent our data back, there is a remarkable correlation with stock price, acquisition likelihood, Hollywood movie interest, and general hockey stick velocity up and to the right. Another powerful indicator is failed attempts by Dave to build on said platform followed by disillusionment. But why have I suddenly several paragraphs ago declared I was wrong about RSS being dead? Am I just looking for a cheap laugh at Dave’s expense? Certainly not, because having noticed the decline has caused me no end of grief, not the least of which is incurring the permanent wrath of someone I’ve admired and appreciated for all of the incredible things he’s contributed to making our lives better. These things, once broken are pretty much impossible to repair. But since I have no hope of changing Dave’s mind, or the minds of the 50 percent who disagree with the notion that Twitter and URL shortening have pushed RSS back in the stack, why quit now? Simple. I’ve come to the conclusion that saying RSS is dead is dead. If saying something so obvious can be so divisive, then it’s time to move on. Besides it means M.G. Siegler has one less instant post to pull out of his hat on a monthly basis. What will a world look like without RSS being dead? No more innovation crushing. We’ll see RSS Track in short order, river of news auto-filtering harvesting the RSS social graph, RSS open location services, RSSflix, the RSStore. RSSmail. The RSS Push Notification Open Server. RSSmic and RSSDeck will merge and acquire UbeRSS. bit.ly will be renamed simp.ly. Other benefits are less obvious. With no Facebook/Google war for social, PR agencies will have no clients asking them to do sleazy Nixonian dirty tricks. No Suggested Friends Lists means no conflicts of interest. Media content will immediately glisten in the glow of transparency and lack of ethical conflicts. Lawyers will bid for work on Groupon. President Sheen will win on a platform of Let’s Just See What Happens. Lady Gaga will headline RSSrupt with her latest hit Reborn This Way. I know you’re sick of this RSS is dead thing too, but at the time I first wrote about it, the world was in need of a disruptive meme. Now, with FaceTime erasing the miles between family, friends, and getting work done, with media churning into a new reality we don’t quite understand, with being social not just an adventure but a job, it’s time to let the old go and the new in. So I won’t be talking about RSS being dead anymore. I was wrong. It has never been more alive, if it were possible for ideas to be alive and bits to be viral. As Paul Simon sings, So Beautiful and So What.
 
Watch The Demos That Pwned The Disrupt Hackathon Top
So you think you have what it takes to build a ground breaking app that will change the world? Do you have what it takes to accomplish that in just a little under 24 hours? Starting yesterday, 500 hackers and the like spent 24 hours on Pizza, Pop Chips and Red Bull trying to come up with the next big thing, or at least something that people want. The competition was rough, and the pitch format was brutal, as you had to explain your idea in just under 60 seconds. Not everyone made the cut, and in the end there could be only four (six if you count the honorable mentions).  So congrats to  Gilt-ii ,  Docracy ,  Doach,  Dispatch IO   and JoystiCC and  Venture Crapital   who earned honorable mentions. We’ve posted a montage of the award winning demos above. And in case you want to meet the teams behind the magic, we dragged their tired butts backstage post Hackathon for some face time. Here they are, in no particular order. Doach Venture Crapital JoyStiCC Docracy Gilt-ii Dispatch.io
 
(Founder Stories) Fmr. DoubleClick CEO, Kevin Ryan "We Lost 70% Of Our Clients" (TCTV) Top
Former DoubleClick CEO,  Kevin Ryan  led the company through a period of explosive growth in the late ’90′s. He took the ad-targeting company from a handful of employees to more than 2,000 in just 4 years before selling to  Google for $3 billion . However, as Ryan discusses in this episode of Founder Stories   with Chris Dixon , the dot.com bust threatened to wash it all away. Ryan says during the downturn, “we lost 70% of our clients, bankrupt, and the only thing that saved us is we probably lost 80% of our competitors.” His white collar war story features seven rounds of layoffs.  Make sure to watch this episode as Ryan relates how he rebounded and went on to start AlleyCorp , a network of companies that includes Gilt Groupe , Business Insider , ShopWiki , and 10gen . In the below clip, Ryan dives into the beginnings of one of these AlleyCorp companies, 10gen , which makes the MongoDB  database. The first Founder Stories  episode with Kevin Ryan can be found here and past episodes of Founder Stories, with founders such as David Karp, Fred Wilson and Christopher Poole can be found here . CrunchBase Information Kevin Ryan DoubleClick Chris Dixon Information provided by CrunchBase
 
GroupLogic Brings Enterprise-Friendly File Management Platform To The iPad Top
Many companies and IT administrators are reluctant to move directly into the public cloud for file sharing and storage. Today, GroupLogic is unveiling a new product, mobilEcho, which attempts to give these companies a secure way for employees to access their files (stored on servers) from the iPad. mobilEcho allows enterprise IT organizations to enable and manage mobile file management for their corporate iPad users. mobilEcho features include the ability to access, browse, preview, cache and search files on corporate file servers and allows administrators to encrypt and securely transfer files to and on iPad. In case an iPad is lost or stolen, admins can wipe MobileEcho on its files. And they can set permissions for certain files to be accessed and viewed by select employees. The virtue of the app is that it promised to connect directly and securely to enterprise file servers; a feature which the company says many enterprises are looking for when it comes to providing secure remote access for employees. As iPads are increasingly being used in the enterprise, there is a need for a secure file management platform. GroupLogic faces competition from cloud-based platforms such as DropBox and Box.net. CrunchBase Information GroupLogic Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Gilt-ii Takes Top Prize At The TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon Top
It’s been a whirlwind twenty-four hours: yesterday, hundreds of talented coders poured into New York City’s Pier 94 for a marathon session of coding that ran through the night. At 9:30 AM this morning, they pushed their last lines of code. And beginning at 10:30 AM, each of them took the stage for a rapid-fire series of quick pitches showcasing what they’d built. Now it’s time to announce the winners. The top four teams will each get a chance to show off their app during the third day of TechCrunch Disrupt (there are also two honorable mentions). Congratulations to the winners, and to all of the extremely talented hackers who made it through the night and built some very cool apps. In addition to the winners below who were chosen by our team of judges, Palantir is giving $1,000 of Amazon Web Services to the company with Best Data Integration, which goes to Who Data. And TokBox is giving a 16GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for best use of the OpenTok API (the device will be released June 8) to Movie Wars. The Winners Taking the Judge’s Choice award is Gilt-ii , the ingenious browser bookmarklet that lets you create auctions around Gilt sales. You can see our full overview of this nifty app right here . Docracy - share and sign legal documents. Doach – The dating coach Dispatch IO Honorable Mentions JoystiCC Venture Crapital
 
Mo' Money: Square Now Processing $3 Million A Day In Mobile Payments Top
That was fast. Just like that Square passed $3 million in transactions processed, on a Saturday no less, according to a Tweet an hour ago by CEO Jack Dorsey. The mobile payments startup is seeing an acceleration in transaction volume. It took about 10 months from its public launch for Square to reach $1 million a day in payments going through its mobile app. Getting to $2 million a day only took about two months. And now, less than a month later, it is passing $3 million. Visa just invested , transaction volume is picking up—things are looking good for Square. COO Keith Rabois will be at Disrupt NYC. We’ll be sure to ask him what’s driving the surge in Square payments. @jack Jack Dorsey Boom. @ Square processed over $3 million today so far. Big weekend going into a bigger week. http://instagr.am/p/EjYzY/ about 20 hours ago via Instagram Reply Retweet Favorite CrunchBase Information Square Jack Dorsey Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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